Welcome to another thrilling edition of “Questions. And their answers.”
Please.
Try to contain your excitement.
1) From Amanda:
Lets see…. what curriculum are you using for homeschooling? I was thinking of doing a combination of $1 store finds and abeca.
What are you doing for your next birthday? If you had to choose between spaghetti and lasagna for life which would you choose?
Such a grand smorgasbord of questions, Amanda!
Ok, curriculum: I am using a variety of things and you can read all about them here. I am basically using The Well-Trained Mind, which is a guide to classical education at home.
What am I doing for my next birthday? Probably crying. I am turning 30.
Lasagna all the way.
Hence, my pudge.
2) From my sweet sugar pants friend, MindyLouHoo:
Would you rather….lose 15 pounds forever and never gain it back but could never wear makeup anywhere again, OR..would you rather…gain 15 pounds but have the most lovely peaches and cream skin ever?
This is a horrific question.
Horrific.
I seriously can’t decide. I would probably want to go with the losing of 15 pounds, but then if people wanted to see me, it would have to strictly be only in candelight, which would most likely prove itself inconvenient over time.
Fun Fact about MindyLou:
MindyLou and I were acquaintances before the age of Facebook. Then we became Facebook friends.
Facebook. It unites people, you know?
I firmly believe that if I were to delete about half of my Facebook friendships, not one of them would notice.
We are that tight.
But that is neither here nor there.
MindyLou and I do talk on Facebook. And she would notice. But anyways, she started reading my blog, so then she asked if we could hang out.
So, we did.
And then she never asked again.
Oh, The Lumberjack will never let me live that one down.
“Looks like you aren’t as fun in real person, huh?”
“Boy, you sure scared Mindy off!”
“Man! What did you say to Mindy?”
Darn this blog.
MindyLou! MindyLou! I am sorry I am so lame in real life.
Another fun fact: A different and completely unrelated reader asked me to hang out with her and we are doing so tomorrow.
I am preparing myself to never hear from her again.
3) From Heather.
Heather goes to my church.
That was a fun factoid, was it not?
My question is: Knowing what you know now, do you regret moving out to Ruralville? If you could do it over would you choose a place closer to town? The reason I ask is because my husband would love to move us out of town too and I don’t know how I feel about that. I think I’d miss not being 5 minutes from Target, or the grocery store, or civilization!
I am not sure I am emotionally stable enough this week to properly answer this question.
But answer it I will.
I don’t know yet. I know that my husband truly needed to live on acreage and he is happier and I am happy that he is happy. But I am still getting used to it.
I used to live 5 minutes from the lake.
Now I live 5 minutes from deer, trees, and a nudist resort.
So, at least I have options!
4) From Ada. Ada magically found my blog from who-knows-where and she knows my dearheart friend Bimlissa!
So, Ada is a kindred spirit in my book.
What kind of gravy are you making? Biscuits and gravy or chicken and gravy?
I am not making any kind of gravy.
I have a few “homeschooling” pounds to lose, I can’t eat food items high in cholesterol, and I simply don’t know how to make gravy.
5) From Mindee. I don’t remember how Mindee and I found each other in blog-land.
But it was a match made in heaven, I tell ya.
Mindee is a very good blogging friend who always leaves thoughtful, funny comments. And her blog is awesome, too!
Will your many and assorted relatives come to your house for a painting “party” and relieve you of your peach oppression?
Well. No.
They all think we live too far.
Perhaps if we handed out gas vouchers?
6) From Martha.
A question, hmmm. Do you LIKE homeschooling? Forget about whether you think you’re any good at it, but do you like it? I’m quite jealous and often think it would be nice to spend all day home teaching and learning with my daughter… but then I remember how crazy it makes me.
I do like it.
Here’s what I don’t like:
1) Dealing with the boys and homeschooling.
2) Laundry+ housework+dinner+groceries+bill paying and homeschooling.
3) Having my dog die and homeschooling.
4) Living super far, therefore rendering playdates super hard to coordinate and homeschooling.
But, the actual teaching of the children and such: Win!
Even if Daisy Mae wrote the number thirteen like this today: E0.
7) From Rebecca D. Rebecca was the first person to win a COW!
Do you know what the COW is?
You should.
Question: What is your favorite brownie recipe? I used to think I had a good one, but I’m just not feeling it right now…
I have found the bestest brownie recipe ever. My husband dislikes homemade brownies and perfers brownies from a mix. But he did say these were his favorite homemade.
True.
He still prefers them from the box that costs 99cents and requires no effort.
But it makes me feel better if I make these.
I found this from AllRecipes.
Brownies:
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, melted
- 3 cups white sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 4 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9×13 baking dish.
- Combine the melted butter, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each, until thoroughly blended.
- Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Gradually stir the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture until blended. Stir in the chocolate morsels. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared baking dish.
- Bake in preheated oven until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Remove, and cool pan on wire rack before cutting
Let us fool ourselves into believing they are low in fat, shall we?
8) From Kristy.
And my question is…Do you ever wish you would have waited until you were older to start having kids? The reason I ask is because I had my first one when I was 22 and my second at 24 and I love them so so dearly. But sometimes I wish that me and my husband would have spent more time with just the two of us before the hustle and bustle of kids started. Just wondering what you thought!
Sometimes. Because me and my husband were, and still are, clueless.
I’d like to think we would have fared better with age.
Nevertheless!
We can do math and we have discovered the kids will be All GONE whilst we are still in our 40s.
Win!
9) From The Lady of the House.
What is the reason you homeschool…? Some say because they know they can give their kids a better education, some say they are worried about today’s craziness at public schools – so just curious, what your reason is…
Because I live too far away to take them to school.
That’s it.
Are you inspired?
Ha! I also mentioned a few more reasons in this post, if you are feeling frisky and want to click on this link.
10) From Charming’s Mama:
When Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water why did Jack fall down and break his crown? Was he a klutz or was he pushed? (queue dun, dun, dun, music) A mystery that may never be solved.
Well.
I haven’t the foggiest.
But I do know that when Lumberjack got Lumberjill stuck on top of a mountain, Lumberjill was super awesome and did not complain as she trudged 10 miles down a mountain to find refuge in shady, small-town bar.
Again. If you are feeling frisky, you can read about it here.
***
Thank you for all the questions!
I appreciated it so very, very much.
Did anyone notice that I didn’t talk about the same thing I have been talking about?
I am really proud!
I didn’t talk about her once!
Not once, I tell ya!
Come on.
You’ve gotta admit . . .
You didn’t think I could do it.
Later, Dudes!
Fun with Adjectives
Hold on to your pants, folks.
We’ve got a lot of ground to cover.
TASTY
We made cookies last night using a new recipe.
Little Dude.
He’s not as helpful as he looks.
Since the cookies were scrumptious, I felt the need to share them with you.
They are from the What Can I bring Cookbook by Anne Byrn.
Tweaked by yours truly.
The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup butter at room temperature
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
1T pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4tsp salt
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Note: Lumberjill used margarine and imitation vanilla. All of Lumberjill’s money goes towards gas, camo, and mouse traps these days. We must save where we can.
1. Place butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar in a large bowl and stir.
You could use a mixer, but I think it is better to use a good old bowl and spoon.
Perhaps it is because once I turn on the mixer, I go and change diapers and deal with snotty noses and naughty children and let the mixer run for 5-20 minutes longer than it should.
Bottom line: Don’t over mix.
Add the vanilla and eggs and stir until smooth.
2. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Put the dry ingredients on top of the butter mixture and stir until combined. Add the chocolate chips. Cover bowl and chill for about 30 minutes.
Fact: I only chilled for like 10 minutes.
Who has 30 minutes for chilling?
3. Bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes.
Shocking News: I am not a food photographer. Nor any other kind of photographer.
There they are. Right next to the time out toys.
You may ask, “Taylor! What are time out toys?”
Well, readers. They are the toys that the kids were super naughty with and therefore must remain by the toaster.
INCREDULOUS!
I will forever love the aforementioned cookie recipe because my husband, David Maliblahblah, TEXTED me whilst he was busy at work (electrifying, not lumberjacking) and said, and I quote,
“Good cookies.”
I will give you all a moment to recover from the shock.
This has never, ever, ever, ever, never, ever happened.
Make these cookies.
I think they almost convinced him to stay home from his upcoming hunting trip.
Almost.
DARLING!
Why, yes!
That is a darling, hand-made camera strap cover on the camera that I don’t know how to properly use!
Melissa Kmade it for me! Isn’t she the bestest?
Go say hi and tell her she is most talented!
IMAGINITIVE!
Little Dude spent the better half of the morning playing “puppy.”
Perhaps we should get him a real one?
Nah. This is way better.
It would appear as though he also declared today to be “A Day Without Pants.”
Yes. My son is wearing a pink diaper.
I don’t want to talk about.
Let’s just say “Parent’s Choice ” diapers from Walmart might be getting a letter of unsatisfaction.
I know. He’s cute.
ORDINARY
Just an ordinary day here.
Out in the middle of nowhere.
All by ourselves.
With mice in our cars.
Gettin’ our education on.
In a peach house.
Refusing to wear pants.
****
We interrupt this exciting post to bring you the COW.
The observant reader might notice that there are three cows in this picture.
That is because there are three winners of the COW (comment of the week) this week!
COW #1 goes to Jessy H with her proposal story:
We had gone out for ice cream and then to a park to swing. While he was swinging he said “Hey Jessy look at me”, and then took a drink of his banana shake and pretended to throw up spitting it on the ground (don’t be jealous). A few minutes later he called me over to him and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.
It was the sublte (don’t be jealous) portion of the comment that did it for me.
COW #2 goes to Dawn, with her super heartfelt comment that made me smile during my most stressful day:
Positives–you aren’t supposed to eat beef anyway. You have now been reminded of the importance to finding that key for the freezer. You don’t need a bunny to take care of. You obviously don’t need renters who think your former home has a ghost. Maybe, just maybe the Honda is unfixable and you can get something of a better size. Your girls are at the in-laws, not with you although you, of course, love them. If you knew how to sew on buttons, there would be no need for this overnight visit. What would be even better is if the boys were there also…. The creature living in your trunk will most likely move out at the gas station (you must dream a little!) And we are assuming that HD still has not lost his glasses!
And the most positive, positive is….that you are more important to the Father than birds of the air and the lilies of the fields!
COW #3 goes to Melissa K on the post “How to be a Superb Hunting Wife.” Yes, the same Melissa K who made me the camera strap cover. Look at her and her bad self!
Ha! I laughed my head off (Get it?) even though I’m not married to a hunter. My husband has threatened for years to mount a trophy brown trout in our living room, though, so I put it on the prayer chain for him never to land one large enough to deem worthy.
Is it wrong to pray that your husband does not catch/kill/slaughter anything whilst hunting/fishing?
It is truly more convenient for me if he brings home nothing and we become vegetarians instead.
Thoughts?
Happy Weekend!